Alright, for those of you missing Ulquiorra, you'll just have to suffer some more. This chapter is focused on Orihime recovering from captivity. It's a big change from the last arc or serious battles. I hope you all enjoy the light hearted humor, and building of friendships.

Title: "And Now for Something Completely Different!" -Monty Python

"Yoo hoo~!" Grimmjow waved his hand in front of Orihime's face. "Puuurrrincesss~" The 6th Espada rolled off the stone slab and into the sand next to the solemn girl. When he failed to get a reaction he resorted to lightly smacking her face. This only managed to make Orihime turn away from him and curl up in a tight ball.

"Guys, I think she's defective." Hollered Jaegerjaques. Without asking permission, he pulled orihime off the ground and threw her over his shoulder. "You can morn the lawn ornament's death when we are safe." Grimmjow let out a laugh, and started singing under his breath. "Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off baggin' 'Himes I go~"

"Grimmjow quit screwing around, and let's get out of here!" Ichigo yelled at him from the platform. Las Noches had completely collapsed, and Aizen's spirit pressure had just up and vanished. The Soul reaper and his friends were curious what had happened, but decided the best course of action would be to return to Soul Society for now, and tend to everyone's wounds. After all, Arturo was still out there, and he was no friend of their's.

"Alright, alright!" Growled out the 6th. He adjusted his grip on Orihime and frowned when she continued to be unresponsive. "Hey girly, when we get you back home, I can stop by on a regular basis and serve you food. And I'll even go around saying, 'I serve Lord Aizen.' If that'll cheer you up." He attempted to skew his features to make his face look more like Schiffer's but it didn't work and Orihime couldn't see his face anyway. Not that his words elicited anything but silence from the woman.

The band of friends left the remains of Las Noches quickly. In order to avoid Arturo they all quelled their spirit energy to a minimum. Sneaking was not something Ichigo and Grimmjow enjoyed but given the circumstances they bit in their pride for the sake of the others. When they were a significant distance away, and were sure they weren't being followed, Grimmjow proceeded to throw one of his hands forward and called forth a garganta. The massive gaping maws of the passage pulled space and time apart, making a bridge to the destination that was desired. That just happened to be Ichigo and company's home town. The group went in first, and Grimmjow barely spared one last look over his shoulder at the homey sands of the hollow's world before following behind them into the light of the sun.

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Several weeks passed, and not a single soul had seen hide nor hair of Sosuke Aizen. The Soul Society had sent routine waves of stealth force to investigate the ruins of Las Noches. And other then the bloody remains of thirty or forty arrancar they were unable to locate anything else. Orihime had begged them to search for Ulquiorra while they were hunting for Aizen, and after much deliberation the Stealth force had agreed to comply with her whim. However, his corpse was never uncovered. There was just too much rubble, and too many unrecognizable filleted and eaten bodies.

Reports of Arrancar sightings became more and more frequent in both Hueco Mundo and the world of the living. But whenever a regiment was sent to track them down, the arrancar fled and hid from the soul reapers. As of current, the arrancar seemed to be leaving humans alone, and only snatched up a dead soul here and there, not enough to be a priority, but just enough to alert the soul reapers that they were indeed still out and around.

One arrancar that had yet to rear his ugly head again was Arturo Plateado, despite the stealth force's nominal effort to track his where abouts. It seemed he'd vanished just as suddenly as he had appeared, and after all, he accomplished what he'd set out to do. He'd seen to the fall of Aizen himself. The relief was tangible among the soul society, the threat of Aizen had vanished, and finally soul reapers were putting closure on the losses they'd faced during that war. Life was rebuilding, and squads were recovering. However, even with the shadow of Sosuke Aizen's threat vanquished, it was only replaced by Arturo's ever present shadow. No one would rest easy when there was a blood thirsty arrancar out there.

And so, until the rouge arrancar's where abouts were located, routine waves of stealth force were sent to comb Hueco Mundo and the living world. He couldn't stay dormant forever, Head Captain Yamamoto knew all too well what that particular arrancar's tendencies were.

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Karaoke night.

In an attempt to cheer Orihime up, help her recover from her depression and move on, her friends had orchestrated a karaoke night every friday. The friend's would gather at her home and proceed to hook up all monstrosities of electronics, before breaking into song competitions. At first it didn't seem to work, and Orihime stayed in her ball of depression, but after a few weeks she started coming out of it, and now at week four, she was even willing to join them, smiling again.

Grimmjow would even join them on these nights. The cat-like arrancar had stayed effectively hidden from Soul Society. He had even made it his unofficial responsibility to look after Karakura Town, making sure no other arrancar encroached on his territory. How he managed to avoid the stealth force was still a mystery to Ichigo and company, but in light of the espada's friendship, and the peace he extended towards them, they voted not to turn him in.

"I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was!" The room was filled with the sound of Renji belting out lyrics. The other's in the room tried to hold back smirks and/or grimaces at the reaper's enthusiasm. What he lacked in singing talent her certainly made up for it in loud bellowing and hand movements. "Pokemon! Gotta catch them all!" The girls in the room hid their heads underneath pillows and giggled quietly till he finished the song.

"I don't think you were loud enough Renji, the neighbors still have their eardrums intact." growled Grimmjow.

Renji responded by making a face at the arrancar and proceeded to toss the mic at Rukia. "Best that, shorty!"

Rukia hopped off the bed with the aid of a hand carved, and ornamented wooden cane. Squad four had installed a prosthetic foot and shin piece after the loss of that particular limb. And while she could walk now without assistance, she continued to use a cane for reasons she would not explain to any of her friends. Renji and Ichigo had their suspicions that it was because her brother Byakuya, had custom ordered that cane, and had it made specifically for her by a most skilled craftsman. Whatever the reason, Rukia seemed quite attached to it.

"Watch and learn, Renji, I'll crush you like a worm." Rukia boasted. She went through the song selections determined to out sing her childhood friend. "hey Orihime, I found a good one, will you sing it with me?" Rukia fixed the autumn-haired girl with a puppy face and held out the other mic. Orihime poked her head from her blanket nest on her bed.

"Oh~ you know i can't say no to you Rukia." She let out a small laugh and joined the short soul reaper. Both girl's stood in front of the karaoke screen and prepared their song, while the men ignored them and prattled among themselves.

"God Renji, you suck." Sniped Ichigo when Renji took a seat in one of the comfy chairs.

"Yeah well I wouldn't say you and Grimmjow are easy on the ears either. You both sound like a couple of cats squallering at the moon." Renji kicked up his feet and covered his eyes with his bandana trying to block out the orange-haired reaper.

Suddenly the room filled with the sounds of music, and the girls began their song with fervor.

"This was never the way I planned, Not my intention."

As the song started and the two girls began their singing, the boys in the room lifted their heads in recognition of the song. Even Uryu who took everything seriously looked up in interest. And when they hit the chorus, All the guys had to hide the intrigued looks that simultaneously adorned their mugs.

"I kissed a girl and l liked it!" Sang Rukia, happily. she and Orihime appeared to be trading lines when it came to the chorus. Taking turns singing, to add to the affect.

"The taste of her cherry chapstick!" Everyone in the room had to agree that Orihime had recovered a lot, in both personality and health in the weeks since they'd rescued her. It was nice to see her enjoying herself again, and smiling. "I kissed a girl just to try it!"

"Hope my boyfriend, don't mind it!" Rukia added, Giving her ornament cane a twirl for effect. "it felt so wrong it felt so right~"

"Don't mean I'm in love tonight~"

"I kissed a girl and I liked it~!" They both finished the chorus together.

When the two friends finished the song, they turned to look at the rest of the group, and giggled at the looks the men fixed them with. Orihime and Rukia shared an enthusiastic high five before plunking themselves on the bed, and waiting for the men to counter attack with a different song. Despite the singing and fun, Orihime still went to go hide in her nest of blankets, ever since returning to the world of the living she was obsessed with warmth and colorful things.

Renji stood up indignantly, upset for having been so easily bested. "I'll show you!" He was about to head over to the mic, but Grimmjow pushed him back into his seat, and shot him a sneer.

"It's not your turn, Red-Head." the arrancar scooped up the mic and began flicking through the music. "Let me show you how a man does it."

"More like a pussy cat." grumbled Renji under his breath.

Uryu grinned from his spot in the corner. "It's the fifth turn Grimmjow. That means you don't get to choose a song. The machine chooses it randomly." The Quincy pointed to the screen and all the occupants in the room turned their gaze as well. There was a randomizer roullette spinning on the screen , shuffling through the songs in the program's database. Tick tick tick, the wheel finally slowed and settled on a song.

"No, I'm not feeling the love tonight." Grumbled the arrancar in response.

The song it settled on left everyone in the room rolling in laughter. Except for Orihime who just sat up quickly and said. "OH! This is one of my favorites!"

"You gotta sing it Grimmy-kins~" Teased Renji, he was secretly glad, he had not taken this turn.

Grimmjow, just glared venomously at the soul reaper, but non the less decided to be a good sport. He wasn't about to back down from a challenge after all. He was determined to get the highest score of the whole group. And as the soft music started up, Grimmjow opened his mouth and began singing melodiously. Knowing the song would have more impact if he sang it at someone, he decided to go for laughs and focused the song on Ichigo, who until now had just been snickering about the whole ordeal.

"I can shooow you the world~" Cooed Grimmjow, at the substitute reaper. "Shining shimmering splendid." Ichigo's response was to dead pan at the arrancar, before his face scrunched up and his cheeks flared a bright red from sheer embarrassment. That's right Ichigo, you are gonna suffer too! "Tell me princess, now when did you last let your heart decide~"

He continued singing the song at Ichigo, even dropping to one knee, and gesticulating wildly with his hands. And instead of asking someone else to join him and sing the female parts, Grimmjow just went ahead and sang them himself, even going as far as to change the pitch of his voice to a high pitched girly sound. "A whole new world! A dazzling place I never knew! But when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear, that now-ow-OW I'm in a whole new world with yooouu~!" Grimmjow got a little carried away, but decided to go with it just for the look of the other's faces. He didn't care if it sacrificed a few points. He would just go for all style!

The arrancar finished the song with a mock bow, and a huge toothy grin adorning his face. The laughs around the room, were his applause as he sat himself on the back of Renji's chair and flicked the Red-haired reaper in the nose.

Ichigo stood up, as it was his turn. He grumbled under his breath about Grimmjow's little stunt as he picked through the music for something that would earn him a decent amount of score. He wasn't about to lose to anyone here. It was just like the men of this room to turn a harmless game into competition.

The game continued on for awhile until the friends began to get tired, and eventually they decided to call it a night. After packing up the equipment everyone headed home. Ichigo and Rukia left together. As what seemed to be usual, Ichigo cooed over Rukia and her leg injury, even while she persisted to tell him that she was fine and could handle herself. Renji left by himself. Uryu and Chad left together since they were headed in the same direction, and Chad was the one carrying all the equipment. Lastly was Grimmjow.

Grimmjow decided to hang back as the others left. He dithered about the room silently, refusing to make eye contact with Orihime. But she could tell right away that he wanted to say something to her.

"Grimmjow? Did you need a place to stay for the night?" She asked him, curious as to what was on his mind.

"Of course not!" Scoffed Grimmjow, as if it were ridiculous for him to need a place to stay. "Just wanted to make sure you were ok... and stuff." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. His shoulders were pushed up and his hands stuffed casually in his pockets. "You seem to be doing better."

"A little." replied Orhime, but now her voice sounded distant. "I'll be fine."

"Maybe.. I should stick around and keep an eye on you." Grimmjow flopped himself into a comfy chair and stretched out. He kicked up his feet and cracked his toes nonchalantly. "You look like you could use the company and stuff. A-and its not because I need a place to stay or anything. Cause I have places! I'm just here to, ya know." He shrugged and stuffed a pillow behind his head.

"Okay, Grimmy-kins." She smiled and settled back into her bed. "Goodnight."

"Yeah whatever." replied the arrancar.

I hope you liek this chapter. I tried hard to fill it with laughs but still make it believable. My husband proofread it to check for errors, and even he laughed while reading this, so i guess it succeeded. yeah! Your humble author, Saij Spellhart. (by the way, Should I write a HitsugayaXRukia fanfic next?)